The Crystal Gem's Star
by Adriana Snow
Summary: Homeworld returned to finish what they started on the Earth. The last of the Crystal Gems have been dealt with. Everything is as it should be. They don't know there is one Crystal Gem left and they weren't prepared for him to find out his entire family might still be alive. AU where Steven doesn't come back to Beach City during "The Return."
1. amethyst vs Amethyst

Amethyst stomped through the tall grass, grinding her teeth in frustration. Stupid. Every single member of her crummy squadron was stupid, brash, and irresponsible.

They'd been using the warp pad to move across planet to their next station and two of them had decided to get into a fight mid warp. Not that that had been much of a surprise. Inevitably, the other four of the amethysts had decided to join the fight. Amethyst had tried to ignore them, rolling her eyes and distancing herself as much as possible in the warp stream. Before she'd realized what was happening, one of the idiots had slammed another into her, throwing Amethyst out of the warp stream. She'd careened through a few other streams before it had dumped her wherever this was. She couldn't even find a warp pad nearby to get back on.

What if she just didn't go back? The thought was so tempting. She knew the Earth, had spent her entire life here before Homeworld had decided to come back and muck everything up. She could hide out, run away from it all. She'd never have to see another amethyst again.

She could try to find the human resistance that The Diamonds were trying so hard to hide the existence of even though everyone knew about it by now. She could join them. If they let her. (Even now she somewhat wondered if that resistance could be… but, no, if the humans sabotaging the effort to drain the Earth of its resources were being led by someone with a Rose Quartz gem and a pink shield, everyone would know. True, Yellow Diamond thought that the leader had to be a gem somehow, but the description of the woman leading the charge didn't match Steven at all.)

The thought of just bolting was so tempting, but… Pearl. Amethyst couldn't just… No.

Besides, at some point, Homeworld would find her. She knew that.

So, finding a warp pad and getting back to where she'd been ordered to be it was then.

She sighed. If she just knew where she was, she could probably figure out the closest one. Sure, Homeworld had built a few more since they'd been back, but she knew the old ones like the back of her hand.

A sudden sharp pain licked through her, radiating from her gem and forcing her to stop in her tracks. Her form started to glitch: flickering and distorting just a bit. Since there was no one around anyway, she allowed herself to sit down and wait it out.

Her gem had been a bit testy the last few days. Her fingers rubbed against the purple gem. It was as smooth as it had always been, but Amethyst knew that if she looked at it closely enough, she'd see hairline fractures through the center.

It was a punishment and a hobbling mechanism by Homeworld. They'd crack you just a bit, not enough to completely disable you, but enough that it hurt constantly, sometimes more than others. Then they'd pour a glue like substance into the cracks to make sure you didn't break any more than they wanted you to. Unlike some that went through the treatment, she could still take out her whip. It hurt every time though.

In a way, Amethyst had been lucky, if luck is what one would call it. They'd been low on soldiers and she hadn't actually been a part of the rebellion. Plus, she had a whip, an unusual gem weapon for an amethyst. There was some gem hierarchy thing she didn't really understand. If she'd come out on time, she would have been a commander.

If she'd come out on time, she would have led an army against the Crystal Gems.

Before Homeworld had come back, she never thought she'd be glad she was a "runt," but she was now. If Homeworld knew she though that way, she'd have a lot more cracks then she did now. As it was, most of her "missteps" were seen as unavoidable mistakes due to her defective status. After all, what amethyst would be able to strategize with enough forethought to sabotage a sneak attack against a group of rowdy humans or destroy an almost finished drill for the new Kindergarten?

They were too stuck in their ways to realize she was still rebelling. That the stars she still wore were a promise to be a defender of this planet even if she couldn't do much.

The pain in her gem had faded a bit and she got back to her feet to restart her journey.

She really didn't want to go back to the other amethysts.

She understood now why Pearl had always been on her case about being a mess or being too rough or not thinking about the consequences of her actions. During the Beach City days, she'd though Pearl was just being lame and overly strict just because she was, well, being Pearl. Amethyst had learned over the last few years that she just hadn't wanted Amethyst to turn into… an amethyst. If she could turn back the clock, she'd keep her room spotless. Hell, she'd clean Pearl's room for her.

She'd never been as bad as the other amethysts. Maybe it had been Pearl's influence, but, while messy, her room had always had at least some semblance of order. Maybe not any that anyone else approved of, but things were in piles and there were paths and she didn't leave anything sharp on the floor. She only purposefully broke her own stuff and it wasn't dirty for the most part. Besides the occasional burrito she forgot about for too long, she typically cleaned up the dirty and goopy stuff after she was done with it.

The other amethysts weren't like her. There was no organization and no respect for private property. Messes stayed where they were until they dried or happened to be rubbed up on accident. Most of the time they abandoned the base before that happened. Many times she'd come back to the smell of something horrible that she couldn't identify.

Worse, sometimes she could identify it. Like the one time she had come back to the smell of human blood pervading the entire base. She wasn't sure if they'd intentionally killed her or if they'd just been too rough, but, either way, they'd decided to drag the body back to play with.

It was the most horrifying thing Amethyst had ever seen. It was mangled, but she could still discern many of the features. It reminded her of- a young woman's smiling face. One of her hands holds a paintbrush while the other presses against her mouth as though trying to force her giggles back down her throat. "Amethyst! I'm trying to paint you! Stop shifting!" Amethyst obliges, but then the baby is crying and a second later, the doorbell is ringing. Sour Cream is dropped into her arms without warning. It's the first time she's ever held a baby.- She'd felt like puking at the comparison even though she knew the body couldn't be Vidalia because the skin was more like- there's a girl on the beach and Amethyst wouldn't have notice except that Steven is acting weird. It takes a while to click, but when it does, well, it's Amethyst's job to make a fool out of him and Pearl's job to make a fool out of herself. Garnet stops them both. A few months later, Amethyst sees the first Gem-Human fusion and as Stevonnie runs off, Garnet says casually, 'Well, we know they'll have beautiful children,' and Amethyst isn't sure if it's a future vision thing or if she's just awed by the new love fusion. Pearl does the only thing she can do it such a situation and buys every book she can find on human sexuality.- The next time the other amethysts had been distracted, she squirreled the corpse away. She buried her a little ways away from the base. She'd never personally attended a human funeral, but she knew enough from TV to hastily yank a few of the wildflowers up and lay them on top of the fresh mound of dirt. If the other amethysts even thought to look for their toy, they wouldn't understand the significance anyway.

She shook off the memory, forcing her feet forward. If she thought about those types of things too long, she'd stop functioning. She needed to figure out where she was, find a warp pad, get back to her squadron. In a couple of weeks, they'd have to give a report to Yellow Diamond. Maybe she'd be able to catch Pearl's eye for a couple of seconds.

She was so distracted by her mission that she almost didn't hear the noise behind her.

She spun around, her weapon out before she'd even completed the turn.

When she saw what had startled her, she hesitated. It was a little human boy. Even after all these years, she wasn't that good at judging the ages of humans, but he looked about the age Steven had been when he'd first moved into the temple. Her heart ached at the thought. Without a second thought, the whip had faded out of existence.

"Hi," she said and her voice must have been harsher than she'd meant it to be because his eyes widened in fear and…and he didn't even look like Steven. His hair, though curly, was the wrong color. His eyes were a bright blue and his nose was all wrong. Yet, all she could think about was her human.

Steven had never been scared of her. He may have been scared for her or of what she was doing, but he'd never been scared of her. What would he think of her now?

She called on her memories of cooing softly to a newborn baby she could have crushed with one finger. 'Human infants cannot understand language, but they can understand your tone and facial expressions,' she could hear Pearl's voice in her head. She'd probably been quoting one of those books she'd memorized just after Steven had been born. Amethyst almost smiled at the memory. Almost.

"Hey," she said to the child who was defiantly not Steven. She bent down so she was on his level. Trying to be small. Trying to be nonthreatening. "It's okay. I won't hurt you." She must have gotten the tone right this time because his face relaxed a bit and he tilted his head at her. "My name is Amethyst, but, that's probably hard for you to say," she continued. She could hear a young voice in her head chanting 'Ama, Ama, Ama?' excitedly in her arms. Pearl's voice screamed her full name in frustration and fear as she summersaulted down a small hill with a toddler hugged close to her chest. Honestly, he wasn't going to get hurt. His head was completely protected and she could shape-shift into a pillow without a second thought. "So you can call me Amy if you want."

"Amy," the little boy repeated back, testing the word.

She smiled and hoped it was soft, not full of teeth. "Yep," she confirmed, popping the "p" because it had always made Steven's nose scrunch up (even when he was trying to be mad at her). "What's your name?"

"Larry," he replied.

"Nice to meet you Larry."

He grinned at the use of his name and then he was walking toward her. He was young enough that his torso was still a bit big for his short legs, but he managed to get over to her easily enough. She didn't breathe as he reached out to touch her hair. His eyes lit up. "Your hair is soft!" The small fingers were clumsy and pulled a bit, but the lack of malice behind the gesture made it feel like the gentlest touch in the world.

"Thank you," her voice cracked a little bit and he looked up at her in concern, noticing the change in tone. That made the knot in her throat thicker. The boy's eyes weren't the same, but the expression behind them was so familiar.

"Why are you upset?" He asked, so innocent and so soft. She hadn't even realized how much she missed human's capacity for empathy. Before, she'd never really understood why Rose, Pearl, and Garnet had rebelled against everything they'd ever known to protect the Earth. She'd understood in an abstract way, but she hadn't known Homeworld or what it was like. What it did. She understood now why they'd fought for the humans all those years ago. Why they'd continued to fight for them, at least, until they couldn't anymore.

She was about to try to give a response that wouldn't terrify a small child, but before she could, a voice spoke from behind her. "Get away from him." Something sharp pressed into her back. She couldn't see the person speaking to her, but it was probably a woman. The tone was incredibly familiar. Scared, furious, protective, all rolled up into one. She'd heard Garnet and Pearl use that tone thousands of times. She'd used it herself whenever their little half human had done something that was brave, but stupidly dangerous. It had to be a family member or a guardian.

Amethyst didn't more, didn't draw her weapon. Honestly at this point, she'd rather be shattered by this little human's caretaker than go back to her squadron. Larry looked over her shoulder, confused at the worry in the other human's tone.

"Larry, come here," the voice said, quavering just a bit. Larry looked at Amethyst and then back over her shoulder. Amethyst could hear the sound of other humans surrounding them, called by the woman's panic. The boy looked at her once more before toddling away. Once he was out of her reach, the sharp thing backed away a bit, but Amethyst assumed it was still there.

"Get up," the voice said. Amethyst obeyed, getting to her feet. She could see the other humans now, poised to attack. She turned to face the woman who had been speaking. The features were extremely familiar. It was Larry's mom, Amethyst knew immediately. Or, at the very least, an aunt or sister. Defiantly closely related. She had the same hair, but longer and the same nose and eye shape.

The crowd of humans shifted, ready to go for the kill and Amethyst couldn't blame them. She was almost glad. But, then, something shifted in Larry's mom's face.

"Wait!" She barked suddenly. The other humans paused. She was looking at her, eyes wide. "A-amethyst?" She asked. It's not like she hadn't been called Amethyst in the years since Beach City, but this was different. It wasn't used as a title or as a thing. The woman was using her name with a familiar lilt to it. Like she knew her. Amethyst stared at her in shock. "It's Sadie. From Beach City." The town name caused Amethyst to suck in a breath. She looked at the woman more closely.

"Donut girl?" Amethyst wasn't exactly proficient at recognizing humans unless they were really special and the girl was older now, but after a moment, she realized it was the same girl who always stood behind the counter at Steven's favorite restaurant. It wasn't just that she looked like Larry that made her seem familiar. Amethyst knew her.

"It is you!" There were suddenly tears building up in her eyes. "You're alive!" Before she knew what was happening, she was pulled into a hug. She hadn't exactly known the girl well before, but Amethyst didn't care because she hadn't been hugged in years. She hugged back. The girl pulled back and looked to the other humans. "It's okay guys. She's one of the Crystal Gems, like Steven."

Amethyst's eyes widened at the name. It was the first time she'd heard it aloud in years. The thought hadn't occurred to her when she'd first recognized Donut Girl, Sadie, but now… "Steven?" she croaked, gripping the girls arm tightly. "Is, is he…?"

Sadie turned back to her smiling. "He's missed you. So much."

Amethyst hadn't cried that hard since waving goodbye to Greg's van as it took Steven out of harm's way over 12 years ago.


	2. The Human Resistance

**In which Amethyst is Embarrassing Mom™ (but still Mom)**

The humans took her to their camp, which was set up in an old, abandoned barn and the surrounding field. The humans, other than Sadie, were peering at her curiously, though they had mostly relaxed about her after they'd been told she was connected to Steven. Most of the short walk back had been dedicated to Sadie scolding Larry. Halfway back, the child had decided he wanted to ride on Amethyst's shoulders. She'd allowed him to climb up her, glad for the distraction of making sure he didn't fall off.

There were other humans in the camp who looked a bit startled by her presence, but they weren't nearly as startled as she'd expected them to be. They mostly calmed when they saw Larry happily riding on her shoulders and went back to their business. Amethyst peered around curiously, as they went deeper into the camp. The humans seemed to be getting along fine for living in a barn. Everyone was very active, cooking or working on some craft. There were a lot of weapons being worked on, Amethyst noted. With a start, she realized that this was the human resistance.

They didn't look like an army. There were children chasing each other around and people chatting amiably over their work. It was nothing like the cold, uniform Homeworld army. Maybe that was the point.

She thought she may have recognized a few faces, but it had been so long and humans changed so much with age that she couldn't be completely sure. Still, she searched the humans' features for something familiar as they walked until her eyes caught on one particular human.

He was half turned away from her, his hand on another human's shoulder, laughing at something that had just been said. Even if she hadn't gotten a horrifying sneak preview of what he would look like as he aged during The Birthday Fiasco, she would have still recognized him. He looked a lot like Greg when she'd first met him, but his hair, though shorter, curled much like his mother's. His face had lost some of its cute puffiness, but his smile was still the same: large and genuine.

Sadie called his name and his head turned towards them, his expression frozen for a few seconds while he took in her presence.

"A-amethyst?" he croaked.

"Steven." They barreled toward each other, meeting in the middle to embrace. He was saying something over and over, but she couldn't quite make it out through his sobs. She thought it might be her name. He lifted her up and… that was new. She was supposed to carry him. His face pressed into her hair and she suddenly realized why she'd kept it long like this all these years despite how it got in the way during fights.

"Steven! Steven! Steven!" and excited voice said from above her. Oh, right, Larry was still on her shoulders. Steven drew back a bit, but didn't put her down.

"Hey, Steven Junior," he said with a watery smile.

"That's not his name," Sadie said, exasperation in her voice. She gently untangled the boy in question from Amethyst's hair.

"Yes it is," Steven insisted, "Isn't that right, Steven Junior?"

"Steven Junior!" the boy happily agreed. Sadie groaned. The actual Steven laughed.

"I think Steven's a good name," Amethyst said. His arms tightened around her.

"See," he said.

"She's biased."

"Eh, that's fair," Amethyst agreed. Steven chuckled at that, spinning her around a bit. "Hey, hey, hey!" she exclaimed.

"What?" he asked pausing in his spinning.

"You're not supposed to be carrying me," she pouted.

He sighed and put her down on her feet. Before he could react, she picked him up and hoisted him over her head.

"Oh!" she heard from above her. After a moment, she felt him relax as he accepted it. "Ok."

She glanced at Sadie and Larry. Larry was laughing at the sight of a grown man more than twice her size lifted over her head. "Kids, huh?" she said. Sadie's eyes were sparkling. "Man you're heavier than you used to be."

"You could put me down," he said sullenly. Some of the humans standing nearby had stopped to gape at them, but she couldn't seem to care. Steven couldn't have cared too much as he wasn't even squirming yet.

You're not that heavy," she scoffed.

"Amethyyyst," he whined. Ah, there was the squirming.

Her laughter was cut short when she felt herself glitching again. She immediately put Steven down.

"Amethyst?" His eyes were confused and concerned.

"I'm fine. I just…" She flinched as another wave of wrong went through her and she could tell by the look in his eyes that her form must have distorted a bit.

"Amethyst, what's wrong?!" he asked alarmed.

"Don't worry," she tried to reassure him. "This happens sometimes. I-" her hand came up to clutch her gem. Trying to hold it together even though it wasn't actually breaking apart. His eyes followed the movement and then his palm was there, warm over her hand. He gently peeled her fingers away to study her gem. His eyes widened as he saw the hairline fractures through the center.

"Gee, Amethyst, how did that happen?" he asked. As he spoke, he reached up a hand and licked it. He gently massaged his thumb over her gem. The effect was instantaneous. Her gem glowed softly and there was a lick of pain as her healing gem met the resistance of the gunk Homeworld had used to glue her back together. Steven's healing power was too much for it. She felt her gem force the substance out as it knit back together.

"I almost forgot you could do that," she said feeling like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

"Better?" he asked.

"Good as new," she told him. Her hand gripped his shoulder. "Thank you." Their eyes met and then there were tears in his eyes again.

"I thought you were dead," he choked out. She pulled him into another hug and he nuzzled his nose into her neck like he used to when he was a baby.

"I know. I know," she hushed him.

"Amethyst," he said putting so much feeling into her name that she felt like she could shatter right there.

"I know."

They hadn't let go of each other the entire day. It had been mid-morning when Amethyst had arrived in the human camp and now the sun was starting to set. Steven and Amethyst were sitting on a log that had been drug to this part of the field to serve as a bench.

"You sure you don't want anything to eat?" Steven asked from beside her, his own mouth full of food. Pearl would have scolded him for talking with his mouth full.

She laughed a bit. "Don't temp me. I haven't eaten anything in over a decade. I might eat everything in your camp. Tents and all."

"At least have a soup can," he said waving it in front of her.

"I'm just a garbage disposal to you, aren't I?" She asked mock offended. She took the can anyway and popped it into her mouth, shape-shifting her jaw so she could swallow the whole thing without chewing. Giggles sounded from near their feet. A group of children had gathered over the day, having heard the rumors about her arrival from the gossiping adults. Unlike their parents, they didn't see any reason not to swarm them.

The adults had been keeping their distance for the most part. A few she recognized came to greet her, but quickly left to give her and Steven some space.

Greg had stayed a bit longer than the others had. He'd given her a hug and she'd mocked his lack of hair. They'd kept it light around Steven, but she knew Rose had told him things about how Homeworld worked by the way he looked at her. They may not have always gotten along perfectly (mostly her fault, she'd known even then), but they were still friends. He still cared. They had a lot to talk about once she managed to let go of Steven's arm.

Steven's eyes were sparkling in mirth when she let her jaw return to normal. He'd allowed her to avoid talking about herself for most of the day, giving her a surface-level explanation of what he'd been doing since he left Beach City. He was leaving a lot out. She was leaving it all out. His questions wouldn't be contained forever, but she appreciated that he was giving her a bit of time to adjust before the serious discussion began.

"It's time to go to bed, Larry," a voice said. The child in question tilted his head back to look up at the man who spoke, Donut Boy, if she recalled correctly.

"No! No Larry. I'm Steven Junior and stevens don't have to go to bed," he said.

"What? Steven!" the man yelled.

"Oh, no, whoever could have taught him that?" Steven asked innocently, but Amethyst could feel his shoulders shaking a bit.

"Erg, you'll confuse him," he grabbed the child around the waist and lifted him up. Despite the child's protests, he yawned and cuddled into the man's embrace.

"Whatever you say, Laramie," Steven shot back.

The man mumbled something under his breath and carried the kid away. Larry waved at Amethyst over his shoulder.

After that, many of the other children were either gathered up by their parents or wandered away themselves. Soon it was just her and Steven. She could almost feel the question wedging itself between them. She sighed, turning to face him. Avoidance time was over.

"How aren't you dead?" he asked.

"I wasn't actually a part of the rebellion," she explained. "They decided to just crack me a bit and give me a chance to be loyal to Homeworld."

"Oh," he said, biting his lip. She steeled herself for the next logical question. "And the others?"

She took a deep breath. "I know Pearl is… alive," she said.

"But…?"

"There's so much we never told you." She clenched her fists. "We should have, but I guess we'd hoped you'd never need the information. It doesn't feel right for me to be the one to tell you." He bumped his head against her shoulder in a gesture of comfort. "Guess I don't really have a choice about it now." She closed her eyes to gather her thoughts. "On Homeworld, pearls aren't treated like other gems. They're made to be servant gems: docile, quiet, weak. Basically everything Pearl isn't," she smiled ruefully, but it faded quickly. "There's a process where 'malfunctioning' pearls can be reprogrammed: stripped of their memories and reset to their original settings. So, that's what they did, except… You know Pearl. She knew about the reprogramming process and had 1000s of years of freedom to think about it. I'm not sure how it's done or how she resisted it, but she did. She acted like it had worked for a bit. Had me fooled for a little while. I wasn't there the day it happened so I don't know exactly what went down, but I heard a lot of rumors. From what I understand, she pulled out her weapon in the middle of a meeting of a bunch of high-ranking gems. She poofed over half a dozen of them, shattered the one she was supposed to be serving, and put a spear through Yellow Diamond's leg before she was poofed herself. After that, well, shattering her would have been acknowledging her as a warrior gem, something Yellow Diamond refused to allow for a pearl. But, they knew they couldn't reset her, so, they cracked her, like what I had, but worse. A lot worse. She's in a lot of pain. Yellow Diamond keeps her with her all of the time as a warning." Amethyst rubbed at the little star design on the thigh of her pants. "She's still there though and still fighting," she told Steven. Pearl was poofed a lot. Amethyst wasn't sure if it was because Pearl kept trying to fight despite being hobbled or if Yellow Diamond just thought it was fun, but she was in a different outfit most of the times Amethyst saw her. Every one of her outfits still had a star somewhere on it. Amethyst had been poofed less often, but every one of hers had also had a star. Homeworld didn't understand the significance of it, but every time one saw the other had been poofed, their eyes lingered over it before going back to whatever they were supposed to be doing. It was a message. I'm still here. I'm still fighting. I know what we are fighting for. Amethyst's hand tightened on that reason.

Steven had tears in his eyes, but he was keeping it together fairly well. "And Garnet?" he asked.

"I don't know," she answered, "but…" His eyes lit up just a bit at the last word. This was going to be a tough one to explain. She sighed. "I've gotta explain a few things to you first. Gee. I really don't want to be the one to tell you this. Garnet was going to tell you. She'd had this whole thing planned out for your 14th birthday and everything. She was so excited especially after you fused for the first time, but she wanted to wait for a special occasion," his eyes were watching her with rapt attention. It was best to just get to the point. "Anyway. Garnet was a fusion. Of two gems: Ruby and Sapphire. They fell in love back during the first war for Earth and they stayed fused pretty much all the time. She didn't want to confuse you as a baby, so we kept it a secret until we thought you'd be able to understand."

He nodded slowly, still processing it, but needing to know. "But what happened?"

"Like I said, I don't know for sure. It's possible both of them were shattered, but I've heard rumors lately that there is a Sapphire that Blue Diamond has been using to decide on things about the colony. See, sapphires are really rare and really valuable because they have future vision. That's where Garnet got it from. So, I don't know if The Diamonds would shatter Sapphire even though she was a main member of the Crystal Gems. Except our Sapphire would never help Homeworld. Unless…"

"They threatened Ruby," Steven finished for her.

Amethyst nodded. "She wouldn't tell them everything, but she'd tell them something if Ruby was in danger."

"So they might be alive," Steven stated.

"They might be. And if they are, Garnet is too."

Steven nodded. "That- that's more than I ever thought I'd get." He looked over at her and he was defiantly crying, but he was keeping it together pretty good considering this was the same kid that had been inconsolable when he'd found a dead fish on the beach when he was 12. "You're more than I'd ever thought I would get," he told her and, dang it, now she was crying.

They were interrupted by the sound of Steven's name being called from halfway across the camp. "Steven!" the voice said again, closer this time. Amethyst looked up to see a woman jogging in their direction. Now this was a human she could recognize, even if she was 12 years older now. When the woman's eyes found them huddled together, probably with tears still in their eyes, she hesitated. "Sorry," she said. "It's just, I just got back and I heard." Her feet carried her forward. "I'm so glad you're here, Amethyst!"

"Hey, Connie," Amethyst said. Connie smiled at the greeting and then Amethyst was getting her millionth hug of the day. She would never complain about being hugged again even if she was getting a mouthful of curly hair and being squeezed just a bit harder than usual. The girl was surprising strong.

"I can't believe you're okay!" She drew back, scrutinizing her. "Are you okay?" she asked meaningfully. And gee, that was a loaded question, one Amethyst couldn't answer at the moment. One she didn't want to answer.

"I'll be fine," she said instead. Connie nodded, a soft expression of sympathy in her eyes. Gosh, Amethyst had missed humans: soft, squishy, genuinely nice, humans.

Connie turned her head to say something to Steven. Amethyst saw the blood on her neck a second before Steven did.

"Connie! You're hurt!" Steven exclaimed. Connie's hand reached up to touch the sizable gash on the side of her neck.

"Oh, right," she said, "there was a vermarine we didn't see until it was too late. It was fine though."

The expression on Steven's face showed just how "fine" he thought it was. "Well let me heal it at least," he said.

Connie looked as though she were going to agree easily, but then she paused. Her eyes darted to Amethyst and then back to Steven. Steven blinked and then looked at Amethyst as well. Suddenly, he seemed uncomfortable.

"Um," he said, standing up, rocking on his toes a bit. "I'll just," he licked his hand.

Connie nodded. "Yeah, um, that's fine," she said. Her eyes drifted to Amethyst again. "Just do that."

Amethyst watched the interaction curiously, realization slowly dawning as she watched Steven carefully rub his healing spit into the wound. Her mouth curled up into a smirk. When he was done, Steven glanced back at her.

"What?" he asked cautiously, recognizing the look on her face even after all these years.

"You could have just kissed it better," she said amused. Both of them blushed hard.

"I don't know what you mean," Steven said defensively.

"Oh, come on, it's not like it's anything I didn't already know," she said. "I mean, you two were just kids last time I saw you, but Pearl had already planned your wedding down to the fine details and, the day you first fused into Stevonnie, Garnet walked to the public library so she could get ordained online."

Steven blushed a lot harder at that. Connie still looked a little embarrassed, but she laughed a bit too.

"Really?" Connie asked. Steven shot her a panicked look.

"Oh, yeah," Amethyst drawled. "We knew right away how Steven felt about you. Did we ever tell you how Steven acted the first day he met you?" Steven glared at her, but she ignored him.

"No," Connie replied.

"Well," Amethyst started.

"Amethyst…"

"We were walking back to the temple and Steven had his bike and we were all like 'why do you have a bike, we're on a beach. It's kinda impossible to ride a bike on the sand.'"

"Amethyst," the boy in questioned complained.

"Shh, I have 12 years' worth of embarrassing you to make up for," she waved him off. "So, we watched him trying to ride a bike across the beach over to where you were reading a book or something. And let me tell you, he was failing hard. We still didn't know what he was doing, but he kept looking over at you like he was trying to pretend he wasn't looking at you. He was trying to impress you with his "cool" bike you see, but you didn't even notice him. When you wouldn't look at him, he tried to get back on the bike, but immediately flopped onto his face. He ran back up to the temple screaming and crying."

"I didn't…"

"You did," she told him. "And then Garnet said he should go try to talk to you and he made us promise not to watch so we didn't 'throw off his funky flow,' (his words not mine). And, well, I guess you know everything that happened after he trapped you in his love bubble."

"It wasn't a 'love bubble,'" Steven grumbled.

"Yeah it was," Amethyst said.

"Yeah it was," Connie agreed. Despite himself, Steven's lips twitched a bit. "Don't worry. I think it's cute," she told him. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

"If you think that's cute, you should here about the time when he was 6 and learned what a crab was. The hard way."

"No, no, talk about something else!" Steven said flustered. "How'd the mission go?" he asked Connie. Amethyst and Connie giggled, but Connie allowed him to change the subject, leading him back to the makeshift bench so he sat between the two of them.

"Everything went fine other than the vermarine," Connie told them. "The peridots were easy enough to bubble and we got the Crisler bomb just before it was finished so I think our techs will be able to figure out how it's supposed to work and how to make sure no other ones they do finish can actually damage anything. The vermarine was able to raise the alarm before attacking, so, unfortunately, they know we have it already. I was hoping for a few more days before they realized anything was amiss, but they probably won't anticipate that we have the tools to figure out what it does anyway since we're humans. So, I guess it doesn't matter too much. The Diamond Guards had warped in as we finished up, but we managed to escape into the woods without them seeing and I got lion to make us a portal back to the base in Brazil."

Amethyst studied the girl as she made her report. The way she described the scene, was casual as though going up against quartz warriors to steel a weapon from The Diamonds was business as usual. The way Connie held herself now was much different than how she used to as a child. A lot more sturdy. Amethyst hadn't been paying attention when she'd approached, but she was wearing a type of armor. Amethyst wasn't quite sure what it was made out of and it was a lot thinner than what humans had worn to battle during most of the wars she'd observed, but it was defiantly designed to protect her. She wasn't wearing a helmet at the moment, but Amethyst could see where one would probably attach. There was a place at her hip where Amethyst imagined a sword would attach, and it looked like she still had some smaller weapons on her. There was a star on the breastplate.

"You're the leader of the resistance," Amethyst blurted. Everything she knew suddenly came together. The rumors that had made their way through the barracks said that the leader of the humans was a tall woman with hair even thicker than some jaspers'. She fought with a sword most of the time, but was also rumored to use other weapons. Sometimes, she'd arrive to battle days after she'd gotten what should have been a fatal blow, completely healed and ready to take down Homeworld soldiers. That was one of the main reasons Yellow Diamond thought she had to be a gem. Plus, she appeared all over the world as though she were traveling by warp pad, but no one could catch her using them. Amethyst had assumed it was actually multiple women and the gems spreading the rumors just couldn't tell humans apart. But if she was riding a lion that could make portals to anywhere in the world and hanging out with a man who could heal her with his spit… "Every gem who knows anything about you is terrified of you."

"Oh, uh, actually, it's more of a team effort really," Connie said a bit shyly. She gestured to Steven. "Steven's just better at the kissing babies and building morale aspect of leadership and…"

"And Connie's the muscle!" Amethyst pumped the air before reaching across Steven to give her a friendly punch to the shoulder.

"I was going to say I'm the strategist and troop mobilizer."

"Connie's the muscle," Steven confirmed ecstatic.

Connie rolled her eyes at him. "Gems are terrified of me?" she asked curiously.

Amethyst nodded. "Yeah. There are so many rumors flying around about you. The Diamonds are trying to keep the human resistance a secret, but it's sorta hard with all you've been doing. I'm pretty sure Yellow Diamond is, like, totally obsessed with you even if she pretends not to be. She thinks you have to be a gem warrior disguised as a human because of how good you are with a sword. Like, if she gets ahold of you and realizes you're actually a human being, she'll probably dissect you."

Connie seemed unsure if she should be proud or terrified at that statement. "I'll be sure to not get captured by her." She tilted her head at Amethyst. "What else do the gems say?"

"Oh, loads of stuff," Amethyst said, "Hmm… They say you are actually an army of robots that the humans made with old gem tech they found." Steven and Connie giggled a bit. "They say you paint your face with crushed up gems before going to battle." Connie looked disgusted at that. "They say you ride corrupted gems into battle."

"I don't ride corrupted gems into battle," Connie looked insulted. "That would be rude!"

Something about the way she'd phrased that gave Amethyst pause. Her eyes narrowed on the children next to her. "Wait. You don't use corrupted gems in battle at all, right?" she asked. There had been rumors that the humans had managed to train corrupted gems to fight for them, but Amethyst had discounted them. She'd fought corruptions for centuries; there wasn't much reasoning with them.

"Well, I wouldn't say we _use_ them in battle," Connie said. "That makes it sound like we make them do it."

Amethyst looked at Steven for confirmation. He shrugged. "Homeworld apparently could never get into the temple because it was keyed to our specific gems. So, we went back one day…"

"And freed all of the monsters in the burning room that we'd spent centuries capturing?" Amethyst asked flabbergasted.

"No. We just freed one so Steven could see if he could heal it," Connie replied.

"And it worked?" she asked. The look that Connie and Steven shot each other was all the answer she needed.

"Sorta…" Steven said. Which meant no, but Steven, the bleeding heart that he was, refused to bubble it again anyway.

"He healed her partially," Connie explained. "Enough that we could communicate with her a bit. She ended up reverting, but she was able to keep her memories for the most part. She didn't attack us!"

"So, of course, you didn't bubble her again," Amethyst said, her mouth a thin line.

"Huh, that's the exact same look my mom gave us when we told her how we met Centi," Connie commented wryly.

"Is it?" Amethyst asked. At least they'd had one responsible adult in their lives over the past dozen years.

"I was right though," Steven defended himself. "Centipedle and the others have been getting better. Some of them are almost completely back in their gem form more than half of the time."

"Yeah," Connie cut in, "Centi only really reverts when she's fighting anymore. That's why Homeworld knows they're corrupted at all. Because they revert with stress."

It must have been clear on her face how very not comfortable Amethyst was with this because Connie plowed on. "We'll take you to meet them. Then you'll see," she said. Amethyst had to wonder if any of them would hold a grudge against her for strangling them with a whip. Of course, if the centipedle that they had mentioned was the one Amethyst did not doubt is was, then it apparently didn't hold any grudges against Steven for electrocuting it that one time.

"Yeah and then we can show you Connie's awesome sword fighting!" Steven added, enthusiastically. He hopped to his feet.

"Um, Steven. Maybe tomorrow," Connie suggested, amused.

"Oh, right, you're probably tired after your mission," Steven said. The sun was completely down now. Most of the adult humans seemed to have drifted away to their tents. Right. Humans slept. She'd almost forgotten.

"You should both probably get some sleep," Amethyst suggested. Steven looked at her as if he was going to argue, but she held up a hand. "I promise not to disappear during the night. You can tell me all about the dangerous stunts you've pulled during the last 12 years in the morning."

His eyes went a touch wide just like- Amethyst isn't really sure why Pearl is surprised when they come back to a very drowsy Steven when their mission runs far past his bedtime. It's not like he hasn't done it before. Pearl still makes a fuss over him, carrying him up to his loft despite his protests that he is not tired. He refuses to settle down until Garnet swears that they will tell him every detail about their adventure in the morning. She gives him a gentle kiss to his brow and he looks up at them with a serious expression.- "Promise?" he asked.

"Promise," she answered.


	3. The Night

**AN:** ***Pokes head out of the depths of grad school: Erm here's this.**

 **I can't deal with my emotions from "A Single Pale Rose" and so I'm channeling it toward fics.**

" _Is there any chance we're going to survive this?" Amethyst asked staring up at the hand shaped space ship descending toward the place that had been her home for centuries now. All the humans had been evacuated from Beach City already and, even though humans tended to stay away from this area of the beach, it still felt empty. Probably because of the absence of the boy they'd watch grow up on that beach._

" _Unfortunately, yes," Garnet replied. Her mouth became a thin line as her fingers curled around the two gems that made her up. Pearl glanced at Garnet and then folded her arms over her chest and looked away from them to somewhere down the beach. Her body was eerily still. Nervous Pearl was usually a moving, pacing, jittery mess, but this Pearl was as still as a statue. Amethyst often forgot that under the overprotective, bossy, cookie-baking, parenting-book-reading Pearl, there was this hardened solider Pearl in front of her now. That's what finally did it for Amethyst. Sure, she'd known intellectually that the gems coming were bad news and that everyone was in danger, but a part of her hadn't really realized it until now._

 _She felt suddenly alone on that beach despite the company of the two people she'd spent so much of her life with. Garnet looked over at her and then at Pearl. "It'll be best if you two form Opal," she said. Amethyst looked back up at the sky. What use would Opal be against that? She thought. She didn't voice her doubts though, instead choosing to return Pearl's nod when she looked over._

Amethyst was instantly awake. That sick feeling of helpless loneliness still lingered in her gut despite the years and distance between the events in her dream and now. Sleeping was a no then.

Amethyst sat up, curling her arms around herself. Opal hadn't been any use in that fight. In retrospect, she wondered if Garnet had known that. The suggestion had probably been less about giving them a fighting chance and more about giving her teammates some tangible form of comfort in the last moments before… She shook the memories away. Drowning herself in those feelings wasn't going to help her.

She was so tired though.

She'd been forcing those feeling back for so long now just so she could muscle through life without curling up into a little, catatonic ball. Now was the first time in years that she had the option of succumbing to all of it without having to worry about being literally stabbed in the back while she was distracted. It was so tempting to just give in for a little bit. Maybe she could even poof herself and take time reforming…

"Don't you dare, Amethyst," she whispered to herself. She dug her fingernails into her arm, trying to focus on the physical pain. "You've got a reason to look forward to the sunrise for once. Now is not the time."

Needing to move, she got to her feet and batted open the flaps of the small tent Steven had set up for her before going to bed. As they'd walked toward Connie's and Steven's tent after their conversation the night before, Connie had pulled Steven aside to whisper something in his ear. Steven had then offered to let her sleep in their tent with them. It had been a terribly tempting offer as every one of her instincts were screaming at her to not let that child out of her sight, but it also felt a bit intrusive. It had been incredibly thoughtful of Connie to suggest it, though, and they'd insisted on setting up a tent for her a few yards away from their own.

Her eyes lingered on the larger tent before she turned away to trudge toward the opposite side of the camp. Even with most of the people in the camp asleep, there were still soft sounds of life around her: sleepy murmurs inside tents and blankets rustling. A couple of the humans were standing guard on the outskirts of the area, talking quietly to one another. She waved so they wouldn't think she was a threat trying to sneak up on them. They acknowledged her presence but didn't try to speak with her.

She half wished they had struck up a conversation, though she didn't particularly want to talk to strangers. At least it would give her something else to think about.

When she made it to the edge of the campsite, her eyes were drawn to something familiar: a van with Steven's last name printed in colorful letters on the side. It was sitting with its lights on, the engine humming softly. Amethyst walked around the side of it to see that the back was open. Greg sat on the edge fiddling with something.

"This old thing still works?" Amethyst asked. He startled a bit.

"Oh, hey Amethyst," he said, setting the object in his hands down. He glanced at the inside of his van. "Uh, yeah. We have some people working with us that are pretty good with technology stuff. There aren't really any places you can get gas for it anymore so they had to rig it so it works off some gem artifact we found a couple years back."

Amethyst looked the van over with a critical eye. "No offence Greg, but, why?"

He smiled a bit. "Here, let me show you." He disappeared into the back of the van and, after a moment, Amethyst crawled in after him.

While the outside of the van had looked exactly the same as it had before, the inside didn't look at all familiar. First of all, it was clean. (Well, cleaner. There were a couple of blankets and pillows thrown into a corner indicating he still slept in the thing. There were some old food containers laying around, but Amethyst could tell by their scent that they hadn't been around for more than a few days.) Secondly, there was a hodgepodge of human and gem technology laid out together right behind the driver's seat.

"What's all this?" she asked.

"Remember how I was able to decode the message on the Wailing Stone with some of my equipment?" he asked.

She did. It hadn't done them much good in the long run, but they'd been able to get a bit prepared. Garnet had enough time to map out the best path with her future vision. They'd been able to discuss what was happening with Greg when Steven had gone to bed. They'd been able to pack Steven's bags with care instead of just throwing things into bags when they saw the hand-ship in the sky one day. "Yeah," she replied.

"Well, we can't figure out all of the gem technology with what we have here, but we've been able to understand some things and intercept some of the messages going out from the Homeworld forces. I was able to use some of the music tech I had in here at the beginning and its gone from there. I've been getting a lot better and, with all the human scientist that we've teamed up with over the years, we've been doing pretty okay for ourselves." He sounded a bit proud of that.

"That's pretty cool, Greg," she said.

"Yeah, well," he said running his fingers through (what little was left of) his hair. "We're still quite a bit behind. Like, I've been trying to figure this out for months now," he said, picking up the thing he'd been fiddling with before she'd arrived to show her.

She glanced at it. "Here, give it to me," she requested, holding out her hand. He looked at her for a moment before handing it over. She pushed a few buttons to activate it. The device made a few quiet sounds and she twisted the top a few times to tune it before turning a dial. The voices became clear even if they weren't saying anything important at the moment. He accepted the device back with an unreadable expression that had her turning away a bit and trying to hide behind her hair. "We used them sometimes," she explained. She didn't see his reaction to that fact as she wasn't looking at him anymore. The van suddenly seemed more cramped than it had moments before.

"Amethyst," he started. "I have to ask…"

"If you're going to ask where my loyalty lies," Amethyst interrupted, "it's still with Steven."

There was a pause. "I wasn't going to ask that," he told her, his voice kind.

"Really?" she asked, chuckling darkly, "cause that's the first question I would've asked."

There was a rustling sound as he moved closer and she could feel his hand hovering near her shoulder, but he didn't touch her. "Amethyst, I know you. I watched the way you and the other Crystal Gems were around Steven while he grew up. Where your loyalty lies was never in question. You three would do anything for him." She glanced at him and then looked away again.

"Yeah," she agreed, hugging her knees to her chest. He crawled toward her and sat next to her, leaving just a couple of centimeters between them. She closed the gap, letting her shoulder rest against his arm.

"What did they do to you Amethyst?" he asked.

"Well, they didn't shatter me," she said bitterly.

"Amethyst."

She sighed. "You know, the only other quartz I'd ever met until Homeworld came back was Rose," she told him quietly. She clenched her fists, "but most quartzes aren't like Rose," she said with a strangled laugh. "They suck. And," she swallowed, "and the worst part is that I see some of what they are in me. They're messy and loud. They never think about the consequences of their actions. They," she hesitated, looking over at him, "they're intentionally cruel."

Greg sighed. He knew exactly what she was talking about. "First of all, Amethyst," he started, "being messy and brash does not mean you're evil. I mean, didn't you ever see my van before? The only reason it's clean now is because Connie helps me clean it out at least once a week." She snorted a bit despite herself. "And while sometimes you probably should have thought before you did things, sometimes being unpredictable is a good thing. You were a good balance to Pearl and Garnet in a fight from what I understand. And secondly, I'm not going to lie and say you never purposefully did things that you knew would hurt others, but you never did it for fun. It was because you were lashing out in grief or because you felt attacked. It wasn't nice of you, but it doesn't make you evil. It just makes you a person. And you made up for it."

"I cleaned your garage after turning into your dead lover in front of your kid," she said blankly, "and that was only the second time. The first time, I just barley spoke to you for over a decade unless it involved Steven."

"Well, I didn't say you were good at making up for it."

She picked at a hole in her pants. "Yeah," she agreed. They sat in silence for a moment. She could feel his sides moving softly with his breath and despite everything she relaxed a little bit. The rhythmic feeling of a human's movements while breathing had become a comfort over the years ever since- It breaths even when it isn't awake which seems odd to Amethyst. Sure, Amethyst breaths most of the time to be able to talk and stuff, but it was a conscious thing and she often doesn't bother when she doesn't need air for anything. But apparently, human babies need to breath constantly even when they aren't doing anything but laying there with their eyes closed. Garnet had made sure to give her that lecture very firmly and Amethyst wonders what future she'd seen where Amethyst screws up.

The thing laying on top of her makes a noise and shifts a bit. Drool pools on her shirt, but even if Amethyst cared, she would not be moving. The small human had just been screaming not 15 minutes ago, louder than any corrupted gem. At least now it isn't screaming. She hopes Greg or Garnet come back soon and that Pearl doesn't. It makes another soft whine. Is it supposed to do that? Amethyst hopes she hasn't broken it.

Oh god, what if it's finally quiet because she broke it.

Except, no, she still feels its chest move as its lungs expand and contract. As long as that is happening, it's probably alive. Just to make sure she gently pokes it in the face. Soft skin dimples under her light touch, but springs back when she pulls her finger away. It makes a complaining noise when it's forced awake, its eyes opening to stare at her. It is the most person like thing she's ever seen it do yet and she cracks a smile. 'Sorry,' she apologizes in a whisper. 'Just wanted to make sure you're okay.' It seems to accept her apology, snuffling a bit and closing its eyes again before going still. Well, still except the rhythmic movement of its chest. Okay. So. Maybe she can see why Garnet and Greg like holding him. Maybe.- "Thanks, Greg," she said, bumping her shoulder into him gently. He smiled a bit at her and she bit her lip. "And also," she continued, "thanks for taking care of Steven all these years."

"He's my son," Greg pointed out.

"Yeah, I know," Amethyst said, "But thanks anyway." He nodded. "He's so grown up now. He's still him, but different too: stronger, smarter. You did a good job, although you always were the only one who was any good with the raising him junk."

Greg laughed. "Not really. I never knew what I was doing. The day my three-month-old magically ended up on the carwash roof, I knew I never had a chance. I've been faking it ever since. We were all in the same boat with that kid."

"Yeah, but you knew what to feed him and how not to almost drown him in the bath," she pointed out.

"True," he conceded.

She grinned, but then sobered, looking away. "I'm still messing up," she confessed.

"What do you mean?"

"I told him what happened to the others. I shouldn't have, but I couldn't lie to him when he asked."

Greg paused. "I… well, Steven is an adult now. he deserves to know how they…"

"No Greg," she winced at how sharp her tone was and took a breath before continuing. "They're alive. Or at least Pearl is, and I think Garnet might be. And I _told_ Steven." She yanked at her hair.

"Oh." Greg replied. "He'll want to…"

"Of course, he will. He's Steven," she rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Pearl would kill me if she knew I told him."

Greg thought for a moment. "I don't like it," he admitted. "He's going to put himself in the direct line of fire over this, so, of course I don't like it. I'm his dad. But, like I said, he is an adult now. He's no longer the 13-year-old kid he once was. A lot of things have happened to that little boy to make him the person he is today. He's protected the Earth and helped raise an army of humans to defend themselves. Not to say I don't worry about him and that the concept of him going directly after Homeworld like he is probably going to do terrifies me to no end. But, there is nothing either of us can do about it now. They're still his family."

"I know." And a part of her wanted to do it too. Fight against Homeworld directly to get back Pearl and Garnet. She could barely even imagine what it would be like to have all of them back together again, but her heart still ached at the idea of it.

"Promise me you'll go with him though," Greg said seriously.

"I'm not going to send our kid off on a dangerous mission without adult supervision Gregory. What type of responsible adult do you think I am?" Despite the gravity of the situation, Greg accepted the shift of mood, rolling his eyes.

"The type that feeds a three-year-old a pint of cookie dough ice cream for breakfast."

"How was I supposed to know what would happen?"

"You knew," he accused.

She shrugged. "Maybe, but I wasn't watching him that day." Greg scoffed, Amethyst chuckled, and things were all right for at least a few moments.

Amethyst sat outside her tent, her legs crisscrossed, staring at Steven and Connie's tent impatiently. The sun had already risen (what felt like) hours ago, and most of the adult humans had already started their days. Amethyst could smell food being cooked a few tents away and people were shambling from place to place in the way humans usually do when they first wake up.

She bit her lip and sighed, picking at the grass next to her. 'Steven and Connie need sleep,' she told herself, 'you have to leave them alone.' She unfolded her legs and flopped onto her back, closing her eyes against the glare of the rising sun. She was given a few seconds of warning by virtue of the soft sound of pattering feet racing toward her.

"Hi!" the small child from the day before enthused when he sloppily landed beside her, his boney elbow jamming into her side in a way that would have stolen the breath of a human.

She opened one eye to peer lazily at the boy. "Sup, Steven Junior?" He giggled when she called him that and she felt a smile pull at her lips in spite of the chill façade she was trying for.

"You want breakfast?"-It's together breakfast! he exclaims. The stack on his plate looks like something humans probably shouldn't eat. Honestly, she's doing him a favor taking it off his hands. He doesn't seem to agree and takes off running through her room. She could catch up with him in an instant, but it's more fun to give chase.- Larry blinked down at her.

She swallowed. "I'm not really hungry, but thanks," she told him.

"Really?" he asked, "my dad's a good cook!"

"Nah, squirt, save it for the people who need to eat." He looked confused for a moment, probably not aware gems didn't need food to survive. She reached up and ruffled his hair and he easily forgot his confusion. "Why don't you go help your dad with breakfast.

He smiled, "Okay!" he said, complying without question. He popped to his feet and was gone in a flash, leaving only a cloud of dust that blew into her face.

She gritted her teeth and hit herself in the forehead when he was gone. "Don't do this. Keep it together," she mumbled to herself. Little inconsequential things like that should not send her mood plummeting. After a few moments, she pushed herself up onto her feet. She glanced at the tent in front of her. They'd had enough sleep, she decided. She plastered a smile onto her face and marched toward the tent.

"Steven! Connie!" she called, springing into their tent before stopping fast, "…Stevonnie."

The fusion woke with a start, bolting into a sitting position with their blanket held to their chest with clenched fingers. "Amethyst?!"

"You fuse when you sleep?" she asked. They hadn't unfused immediately, Amethyst noted, even with the shock. Impressive. They must be a pretty stable fusion

A blush rose on their cheeks. "Um… yeah…sleep," they coughed.

Amethyst tilted her head at them. "Wait, do you not have a shirt on?" she asked noting the way the fusion was still clinging to the blanket and the bare shoulders just barely visible. "Oh."

"Get out," they said.

"Wait, wait," she said, "how does that work, do you just…?"

"Out!" they yelped, reaching blindly for whatever was next to them and throwing it at her violently.

She caught the object (Steven's shoe) and laughed, rolling out of the tent to avoid the next projectile. She laid flat on her back for a moment guffawing as one voice turned into two and there was a desperate shuffling inside the tent.

Amethyst sat up and waited for a few minutes. Finally, Steven and Connie walked out of the tent. Connie glanced at Amethyst, blushed, and walked off in the other direction. Steven, wordlessly, held out a hand for his shoe.

Amethyst contemplated him for a moment. "Greg did give you 'The Talk' didn't he?" she inquired, plopping the shoe into his hand. "Because I already helped raise one human. I'm not ready for another baby. I need a couple of centuries."

"I am not having this discussion with you," he replied, struggling to put on his shoe.

"Why not?"

"No offence, Amethyst, but you're a sexless rock that came out of the ground fully formed. You don't know anything about it. Also, it was awkward enough with dad and Pearl when I was eight."

"Oi, your mom was a sexless rock too you know. Besides, I know plenty," she protested. "Do you know how many books on puberty Pearl tried to make us read and then read out loud to the rest of us when we wouldn't?" she asked. "So. Many."

"Please don't make me have this conversation again. Really. Dad covered all the bases. Please."

"Whatever dude," she relented. "Just don't let her get you pregnant." Steven paused and looked like he was going to say something before shaking his head.

"Yeah, okay, I promise I won't get pregnant. Can we drop it now Amethyst?"

"Sure," she agreed, satisfied with his promise, "what's the plan for today?"

"Well," he said, his eyes lighting up, "first, we should have breakfast and then you can meet Centi and the others and then you can help Connie and I train!" He grabbed her arm and pulled her toward a seating area a little ways away where Connie was already putting together a couple of plates of food and idly talking with a couple of the other humans.

Connie turned when Amethyst and Steven walked up and smiled at them, apparently over her embarrassment from earlier. She handed a plate to Steven. "Do you want anything?" she asked Amethyst.

"Nah, I'm good," she said. Her stomach still twisting at the thought of 'together breakfast' and the lack of the 'together.'

"You sure?" she asked. "We have plenty, really."

She shrugged, glancing at the plate in Steven's hand. "Eh. It looks like goop anyway," she waved her off.

"Amethyst, I've seen you consume literal garbage," Steven commented bewildered.

"Yeah, well, I got out of the habit of eating," she snapped, immediately regretting her tone. She tried to soften into nonchalant. "That can from last night gave me indigestion."

The damage had apparently already been done, judging by Steven's expression. "But…" he trailed off. "Okay," he said after a moment. They sat down on some chairs, an awkward silence between them while the two humans began to eat. Steven kept giving her those part pouting, mostly concerned puppy dog eyes he was so good at but didn't press. That almost made it worse. Why hadn't she just eaten the darn food.

Connie shifted and cleared her throat a bit. "So, do you want to ask any more questions about our operation?" she asked. "We didn't really explain much yesterday."

Amethyst didn't really have any questions, but she wasn't about to throw away the conversation life-line Connie had just thrown her. She thought for a moment. "I noticed Donut Girl, erm, Sadie, stayed with you guys all these years," she commented.

"Yeah, a lot of the Beach City people stuck around with us. They kinda knew more about what was happening with the world than most humans because they'd lived with you guys all those years," Connie told her.

"I guess running into gem monsters on the beach every so often would prepare you for a lot," Amethyst said.

"Yep, we're pretty spread out at the moment, but it's nice to at least know where some people from before all this happened are, you know," Connie said.

Amethyst swallowed thickly and twisted her fingers up in her pants a bit. "I do." Back to silence. Amethyst opened her mouth and then closed it.

"Do you want to see Vidalia?" Steven blurted. Both Amethyst and Connie looked at him in surprise. "It's just, she used to talk about how you were friends sometimes after…" he trailed off, looking down at his plate. Amethyst forcibly shoved the thought of a thirteen-year-old Steven being comforted with stories about Amethyst and Vidalia in the old days from her head.

"So, she's okay then?"

Connie was watching Steven with drawn eyebrows, but still answered her. "Yeah, her and her family should have landed on the Pacific Coast by now," Connie explained when it was clear Steven wasn't going to reply. "Would… would you want to go see her?"

"I-I don't know, I…" That offer brought up a lot of complicated emotions. She hadn't even seen Vidalia since Steven was little. Would she even want to see Amethyst? Her race was currently trying to destroy the Earth after all. Of course, she wanted to see her, but it was more complicated than that. It was… "Yes," spilled out of her mouth without permission.

"Okay, we can go there first today," Connie said. She turned to Steven. "Why don't you go radio them and tell them we're coming?" His eyes flickered up to her.

"Yeah, sure," he replied getting up. He took Connie's plate from her and walked away.

Amethyst sighed.

"Hey," Connie said softly, reaching a hand over to cover Amethyst's.

"I didn't mean to…"

"I know," Connie replied. "So does Steven. He just doesn't know how to deal with this yet." She hesitated. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"There's not really and 'it,'" Amethyst explained. "I don't know why I got so stressed out about breakfast. There's just a lot of things bumping up around in my head that I can't really pin down. I'm not sure where some of these thoughts are coming from honestly… It's silly."

"It's not silly," Connie reassured her, squeezing her hand a bit. "You don't have to completely understand what's going on in your head right now. Give yourself a bit of time."

She gave the girl a half smile. "Thanks," she mumbled.

"I, uh, called Jenny and said we're coming." They both looked up at Steven's voice. Neither had noticed him approach. "She'll let Vidalia know."

"Alright then, let's go," Connie said getting up. Amethyst hesitated, playing with her fingers.

"Come on Amethyst," Steven said. "I promise she'll be happy to see you." He leaned over to curl his fingers over hers. She looked up at him. His eyes were gentle and calm. Apparently, she'd been forgiven for her earlier curtness already. She turned her hand over and linked their fingers. He tugged at her arm, no harder than he had when he was a toddler, though by now he probably could have picked her up and carried her away if he'd decided. She let him pull her up anyway. He let her hold his hand until they had to let go to mount his lion.

 **AN: This will eventually get done. Eventually.**

 **Sorry for the typically spelling errors.**


	4. Of Carrots and Bunnies

The pink lion stopped abruptly, causing Amethyst to pitch forward a bit and get a mouthful of cotton candy like mane. (She found that, despite its appearance, it decidedly did not taste like spun sugar). Apparently tired of carrying his load, the animal sat down without giving them a chance to get off. All three of them toppled off of it in a tangle of limbs.

"Lion!" Steven complained. The lion only yawned. Amethyst rolled off the pile and got to her feet while Connie peeled herself off Steven and helped him get up.

"I see his training is going well," Amethyst commented.

"It's a work in progress." The lion got back up to its feet and casually wondered away. Steven watched him go with a sigh.

"Should we really let him go off like that?" Amethyst asked. "Isn't he our ride?"

"It'll be fine," Connie told her, "he'll come back when we need him."

"If you say so."

"Come on, this way!" Steven told her, grabbing her arm and leading her out of the wooded area they'd landed in toward a rocky beach. He looked left and right. Spotting a small group of humans walking down the beach, he waved an arm. "Guys!" he called.

Three people turned toward them. The woman looked vaguely familiar though Amethyst couldn't quite place her at the moment. Doubtlessly, she was one of Steven's friends from Beach City. However, the shape and color of the man's hair gave away exactly who he was: Sour Cream. The two adults held either hand of a small child, swinging it up with every footstep so it could keep up with their longer strides by hopping.

"Hey, Steven," the woman called when they got close.

"Hey Jenny! Hi Sour Cream!" He bent down, smiling at the kid. "Hiii Ellie."

At the sound of their name, the kid looked over at them. Their eyes slid right over Steven and Amethyst only to light up at the third member of their party.

"Co'ie!" the kid exclaimed, letting go of the adults' hands and stumbling over toward Connie.

"Hi Ellie," Connie replied, bending down and holding out a hand for the kid to grab and steady themselves with. They cooed and grabbed at Connie's hair.

Steven made a pouting face.

"Aw is someone _not_ the favorite?" Amethyst asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said. Connie glanced at him a grin pulling at the sides of her lips as she picked up Ellie. Steven pouted harder.

"How'd everyone manage the trip?" Connie asked the adults.

"Pretty good," answered Sour Cream. "Didn't run into any Homeworld soldiers. We picked up a few pieces of old gem tech at that spire you told us about. Greg might be able to use them."

"We also ran into a corruption a couple of times," Jenny added, "but we weren't able to catch it. It didn't attack or anything, just ran away. Yellow Tail has a map of where all we saw it."

"I'll make sure to pick that up from him before we leave," Steven said. "How's your food supply?"

"We're doing pretty alright," Sour Cream replied.

"Eating a lot of fish," Jenny added.

"I'll make sure to send some vegetables and other meat over for you guys soon."

"Cheese!" Ellie contributed.

"We have cheese Ellie," Jenny said.

"Cheese!" the child demanded.

Steven chuckled a bit. "We'll send some cheese over for you too Ellie." That seemed to be what it took for Steven to get some attention.

"Cheese!" they squealed and waved their arms at Steven.

He grabbed thier flailing fist and sighed. "You only use me for food." The kid giggled.

Jenny smiled at Ellie and then turned to Amethyst. "Vidalia's inside inventorying the food supply." She said.

Amethyst's eyes followed the tilt of Jenny's head to the boat that was docked. "Right," Amethyst replied.

Steven gave her a little shove to the back. "We'll get some things worked out with Sour Cream and Jenny while you're gone," he said. Well, it wasn't like she could back out now. She swallowed and trudged toward the boat.

She stepped onto the boat and headed toward the propped open door that led to the hull. She tilted her head and followed the sound of chopping until she found Vidalia in a make-shift kitchen chopping carrots. Amethyst stood there for a moment, unsure of what to say. What could she say really?

"Hey, Amethyst," Vidalia said without turning around. "Want to help me chop vegetables?"

"Sure," she agreed without even realizing it and before she knew it, she had a knife in her hand. She stared at it blankly for a moment.

"We're just chopping off the bad parts of these, so we can use up what we need to tonight," Vidalia explained. "If there aren't any mushy or brown spots, don't cut them up. Just put them in that pile over there. Once we have everything sorted, we'll count up what we've got left and start on the celery."

"Okay." She looked down at the carrot on the cutting board. The tip of it had started to go brown so she cut that off and discarded it before glancing over at what Vidalia had already chopped up and cutting up the rest of the carrot into chunks the same size. She dumped the good pieces into the bowl with the other carrot pieces. She wasn't a stranger to cooking. She'd had to help prepare food for Steven often and the old familiarity of it helped her relax a bit.

"So, Sour Cream had a kid?" she broke the silence. Vidalia glanced over at her with a smile.

"Yep," she confirmed. "I have two grandchildren now."

"Heh, you're old." 

"You're ugly."

They both burst out laughing.

"It's good to see you Amethyst," Vidalia said after a few minutes.

"It's good to see you too."

She went back to work on the vegetables and Amethyst followed suit. "So, where were you this entire time?" she asked. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"I…" she chopped a piece of the carrot in front of her off and found that the rot went further down than she'd cut. "We all got poofed by the Homeworld soldier the day you were all evacuated." She dug her knife into the carrot once again. "I didn't think I'd wake up, but I did." There was still more rot. "They did something to my gem, cracked it but so it wouldn't break. I was apparently useful despite being a runt because of some weird thing with my weapon and was given 'mercy' because I didn't know any better." She was over halfway through the carrot now. "They put me with a squad of other amethysts. Eventually there was a mishap with the warp pads and I ended up near Steven's camp."

A hand reached over to stop her knife. "I think that carrot might be done for." Vidalia pushed the carrot pieces into the discard pile and set a new carrot in front of her before going back to her own carrot. "So, that's all that happened, but that isn't all that happened is it."

The new carrot was pretty good. It just took a few quick chops to get it in good shape. "No," she admitted. "It's not all that happened." She diced the carrot up easily and reached for another. "Have you ever seen a dead human."

Vidalia's knife hesitated just a bit. "Yes. I have."

"You guys don't die pretty you know. Like a dead gem is horrifying because you know what's happening when they shatter. But, you. You bleed and ooze and tear and its all right there. Right in front of you and all you can see is all of the faces you've seen before. Everyone you've ever met or cared about pasted onto that mess of blood and bone. And no one else even gets it. They don't understand how it works. That the red stuff is supposed to stay inside and why. How the bones are supposed to set together. But I did. I got it. I'd kissed Steven's scrapped knees to get him to stop crying and helped Greg up the steps with a broken leg. I'd watched thousands of ribcages expand with breath and felt hearts pumping blood whenever I got touched or hugged by one of you. How, how am I supposed to handle seeing that. I helped some escape, but my squadron wasn't trusted anywhere near the front line. We were usually just clean up afterwards and it was too late. Sometimes they'd even leave them half alive. Their guts hanging out and their limbs all twisted and… and I'd kill them because I knew they wouldn't ever get any better and I knew no one else would even think about it. And, and, how am I supposed to look at Steven now when all I've seen is his face plastered over so many dead bodies? When I've felt blood warm my hands as I finished off people like you and his dad? How… how am I supposed to hear my own name and not remember pain and hate and fear, mine and theirs?"

Vidalia laid a hand on her shoulder and she paused, actually taking a breath even if she didn't need it. "I don't know," she replied.

Amethyst turned and hugged her around the waist. "I've just suddenly been shoved back into this universe where it's not just about trying to live and see a glimpse of Pearl every few months and trying to stop the carnage where I can. Because he's right there. My kid; the thing that stole every bit of my heart in just 13 years and he's so alive despite all of my nightmares that told me otherwise. And he's been fighting this whole time. You are all here ready to fight. You and Connie and Greg and Donut Boy and Girl. And what exactly am I supposed to do with that?"

"I'm not sure," Vidalia admitted. "I don't know if there is something you can do about all of that, honestly, and I can't even imagine what exactly all of that feels like. But, I think you know what to do. Or at least, you can know if you try. Mostly I just think what you need to do is try to live. Talk to Steven even if you can't tell him all of this. Help him fight even when you don't think you can fight yourself. Take deep breaths and hug the people you found again. Look at the flowers that are still blooming on this planet despite Homeworld's best efforts. Chop a couple vegetables. See where it leads you."

Amethyst stepped back and looked at the table they'd been working on. They were almost through all of the carrots. She looked at the rotted pieces and the good ones chopped up for dinner and the whole unblemished carrots ready to be counted and stored.

"I think I can start there," she said.

They'd finished chopping vegetables and Amethyst was watching Vidalia update the log she kept of their food supply when a man, Buck, walked in holding a baby. Amethyst probably wouldn't have remembered his name if Vidalia hadn't told her about all of her ship mates. "Hey, Onion Mom," he said. He looked over at Amethyst, "Hey, Steven's Purple Aunt," he greeted before turning back to Vidalia. "Do you know where my dad is?" he asked. "He said he was going up to get some air when I went to take Lee for a nap, but I can't find him on deck."

"Yeah he went to try to stop Kofi and Yellowtail from arguing about how to cook the fish again."

The man sighed. "I'm sure that's going as well as it always does."

Vidalia chuckled, finishing up her notes. "Want me to feed them?" she asked. "Sour Cream, Jenny, and El are outside with Steven and Connie."

"Sure," Buck replied, handing the small thing over. It made a little noise while being transferred, but otherwise was quiet, just watching with wide eyes.

"Also, take these to your dad and them," she said, handing him the bowl of chopped vegetables.

"On it," he replied, picking the bowl up off the counter and leaving with it.

"Hey, Amethyst, hold Lee while I get their lunch ready," Vidalia said. The baby was suddenly in her arms before Amethyst could register that it was being put there. Vidalia wandered off humming.

Amethyst looked down at the thing cradled in her arms. "Hey."

"Awo," the baby replied. They had been really quite up until this point, but now they were getting all squirmy. It wasn't in distress though, Amethyst noted. She sighed and flipped her hair around, so the baby could grab a couple of handfuls. Babies always did tend to get more active when she was holding them, and she wasn't sure why. When Steven was young, Greg holding him had always calmed him down, Pearl holding him (the few times she did when he was small) caused him to stare wide eyed up at her, and if Garnet held him, he'd be asleep in an instant. But, when Amethyst help him, he usually got more active: gurgling and kicking and hair pulling. She remembers trying to put him to bed when he was a toddler by herself. She'd chased him around and around the house, catching him and dropping him back into bed, just to have him pop right back up with a giggle. She'd finally given up and cuddled him into submission. He'd eventually drifted off with a smile on his face. Amethyst smiled at the memory and bopped Lee on the nose. They responded with a tug on her hair.

"Lee, you can't eat Amethyst's hair," Vidalia said.

"Eh, I don't mind," Amethyst told her. "I've had worse gunk in my hair."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Vidalia mumbled. Amethyst stuck out her tongue. "Hey, Lee, ready to eat?" she asked, pulling Amethyst's hair out of the kid's mouth. Vidalia smiled down at the baby with a bestowed expression. Amethyst shifted to hand Lee over and Vidalia accepted, gently opening the babies fists so Amethyst could keep her hair.

"I should probably get going," Amethyst said once Vidalia had given the baby a bottle.

"Yeah, Steven's probably waiting for you by now," she said.

"Yeah," Amethyst said she looked down and kicked at the floor a bit. "Thanks for listening," she swallowed. "It was a big help actually."

"Any time," Vidalia said. "Don't be a stranger. Steven always knows where we are."

Amethyst nodded with a smile. "See you later Lee," she said, ruffling the little baby hairs on the top of their head. She turned to leave.

"Hey Amethyst," Vidalia said. Amethyst turned back around. "I talked to Steven a lot the last few years. I know you might not want to tell him everything, but you should talk to him. He's and adult now, but he's still a kid too. He missed you."

"Yeah, I know… thanks." She turned back around and walked back the way she'd come in.

It was difficult to peel Ellie off of Connie, but after a while, Buck managed to bribe them with the promise of terrorizing their grandpas who were apparently all still arguing over how to cook the fish. They all waved goodbye to Jenny, Sour Cream, Buck, and their kid.

"So, we're going to go see your group of corrupted friends now?" Amethyst asked.

Steven's eyes lit up at the mention of them. Which made her smile even if she still had her trepidations about them. "Yeah, we just need Lion!" Instead of calling for him like he used to though, he just looked at Connie expectantly. Connie put her fingers in her mouth and whistled a high-pitched noise that had Amethyst wincing and covering her ears. There was a flash and Lion hopped out of the portal he'd just made to stand in front of them. They all got on the lion and with another roar, they catapulted through space.

Lion landed softly in the middle of a sandy area. Having learned from her earlier mistake, Amethyst hopped off his back before he could remove her in some other, less dignified manner. The two humans followed her lead, managing to get off the large cat before it collapsed onto its belly and closed its eyes already half asleep.

Steven patted Lion on the head. "Thanks Lion!" it huffed a bit in response. "This way," he and Connie led her toward a rock structure. The area appeared desolate: there was nothing green anywhere in sight and the only sound was the sand crunching under their feet as they walked. Yet, when they got closer, she started to hear muffled banging as though something heavy was being thrown against the sandy ground. After a few more yards, she heard hisses; her spine stiffened, but Steven and Connie didn't seem too worried. When they were almost at the rock structure, the noises abruptly stopped for a moment before there was a shout and more vigorous hissing. Two giant green and black snake-like monsters slithered out from behind the rock, lunging toward them with impressive speed. Amethyst jumped and summoned her whip on instinct, but Steven's face lit up with a smile.

"Hey!" Steven greeted with a giggle. Amethyst watched, tense, but the corruptions just sort of curled themselves around Steven like energetic house cats. "Why're you guys all like this?" he asked, petting one of their heads.

"We were training," a voice said. This gem had the same color scheme as the corrupted gems but wasn't obviously corrupted. She glanced over at Amethyst and Amethyst let her weapon dissipate. If it had been 12 years ago, Amethyst probably wouldn't have noticed anything was wrong. However, there was something off about her face. It seemed like there was something flickered under her skin, stretching and rolling: barely contained. "They got a bit excited."

"Oh, well, that's alright. You're still making progress," Steven said. He kissed one on the top of its head. Acid poured from its mouth burning away some of the rock under its own feet. "How're you doing Centi."

"I'm doing quite well," she shooed the others away from Steven, so she could ruffle his hair.

"Amethyst, you remember Centipedal."

"Yeah, your corrupted friend you fed Chaaaps and threw a refrigerator at."

He laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Not in that order," he mumbled.

"How's everyone doing?" Connie asked. The corrupted gems had turned their attention to greeting her now. One had wrapped its way around her legs and she had to hold on to its back to keep her balance.

The monster not wrapped around her legs hissed out a mouthful of acid in response.

"She says good," Centi replied.

"We thought we'd introduce Amethyst to everyone today," Steven said.

Centi turned to her. "I heard that you had returned. Welcome back."

"Er, yeah, thanks," Amethyst replied.

Steven grabbed the hand she'd been using to toy with the hem of her shirt. "Come on, let's go see everyone." She let him tug her along toward where the centipedals had come. The large rock formation must have blocked most of the noise from behind it because as soon as they passed the structure, the sound of living could easily be heard. She could hear muffled conversations and shuffling sounds as people moved around. A few gems milled around this front area, lounging on chair and couch like structures that had been sculpted out of sand and rock. The other gems she could see all were in strange forms, most somewhere between fully corrupted and normal looking. She thought she saw a few rubies and carnelians. Maybe even a jasper, but it was hard to tell when they didn't have their normal forms and they were too far away to see their gems.

"Hey, I'm going to go check on the new ones," Connie told him. She squeezed Steven's shoulder and shot Amethyst a grin before heading off toward the north.

"And, if you don't need anything, I'm going to go get these two calmed down," Centi said gesturing toward the other centipedals. The two in question made hissing noises and she rolled her eyes. "Yes. You are," she insisted.

"Yeah, of course," Steven replied. "I know my way around." He gave her a brief hug before grabbing Amethyst's hand again and leading her toward some of the stone furniture. He introduced her to a dizzying number of gems, with a string of names that did nothing to help her identify what their actual gem type was. He led her around a maze of caverns that seemed to have been carved by a mix of natural causes and by intentional design. They had a nice little settlement set up. Steven explained that each of the gems had carved out a little hole for themselves within the walls, places to call their own where they spent their down time. There were different sections: places for fire pits (though she wasn't sure what they used them for considering they didn't need the heat or to cook), places for training, even a few small gardens with a mixture of different edible (for humans at least) and non-edible plants.

They also had cells.

"They don't get any better if they're bubbled all the time," Steven explained, "but they can be dangers to themselves or others." Amethyst bit her lip, staring at a gem that was still completely corrupted. It looked calmer than most of the gem monsters she'd fought. It watched her with curious and slightly wary eyes. Amethyst had to wonder if the Crystal Gems would have done something similar eventually if they'd had more time and with pressure from Steven. He had, well… it felt weird to say "tamed" now didn't it… Centi that one time and, she imagined, it would have only been a matter of time before Steven's puppy dog eyes wore them all down. She wondered how it would have worked out with the five of them (counting Connie of course) "Ooo," Steven said, suddenly with stars in his eyes. "We should check out the animal hospital!"

"Animal hospital?" Amethyst asked, drawn out of her musings.

"Yeah! We have a place for animals that people find that got hurt."

"Okay," she agreed easily. "Let's see it." He pulled her toward a section of the camp. Ah yes, that was definitely the smell of animals, Amethyst thought when they drew near. There were holes in the walls much like the holes that were used for gem homes, except they had bars over them like the cells. They each seemed to be labeled with different colors and symbols. She could guess some of the symbols were for snakes and scorpions, but others were incomprehensible.

Steven began happily dragged her around showing her the different animal enclosures. They passed through the first part of the section into another "room." She glanced around this space to see two gems off to the side under a large archway like hole. The two seemed to be completely in their normal gem forms. One was a little shorter than Steven and blue and the other one was big: tall and buff. And purple.

It was an amethyst. Amethyst wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. She kept herself behind Steven and watched the two. She was bigger than Amethyst, in fact, she was probably bigger than a typical Amethyst. As Amethyst watched, she laughed and shoved the other gem. Amethyst thought it was an Apatite. Amethyst winced.

"What's wrong Amethyst?" Steven asked when he noticed her lagging behind.

"Nothing."

Steven looked at her and then over at the two other gems. "Oh!" he said. "That's right, Sleam is another amethyst! I bet you want to meet her!"

Sleam? Wait. "Wait, Steven I-" but it was already too late. Steven had pulled Amethyst out from behind him by the arm and was waving at the other gems. He started tugging her in their direction.

"Hey Sleam! I have someone who wants to meet you!" He pointed to Amethyst who tried her best to hide behind her own hair. "Hey Picket!"

The Apatite, who Amethyst guessed was nicknamed Picket by Steven glanced at her and moaned. "Oh no, another one." Amethyst flinched.

"Can it string bean."

Picket rolled her eyes. "Well at least this one's shorter so won't…" before she could finish, the other amethyst bent over and grabbed her by the ankles, flipping her upside down. The Apatite blew some of the hair out of her face. "Do that," she mumbled.

"Apologize."

Picket clucked her tongue. "I was just joking."

"Apatite."

She puffed out a breath. "Sorry," she said to Amethyst.

"Uh, it's cool," Amethyst replied.

"Good."

When the amethyst didn't make any move to set Picket down, she squirmed a bit. "If you don't put me down this instant, I will never fuse with you again."

The amethyst kept ahold of her feet with one hand and grabbed her elbow with the other, bringing her face up to eye level. "Liar," she said. She dropped Picket's feet and lowered her to the ground.

"Maybe." They smiled at each other a bit.

Oh. It was… not malicious. Right. Okay.

"So, you must be Steven's Amethyst," the amethyst said. "We've heard a lot about you."

Steven gave her a little nudge. "Good things I hope," she managed to spit out.

"A lot of good gems came from your kindergarten. Glad to see another one of you joined the Crystal Gems."

Amethyst blinked. "You were a Crystal Gem then? Before?"

"Yeah, a lot of us were actually," Picket replied.

Amethyst had known of course that most of the corrupted gems they'd fought were Crystal Gems before their corruption. That had been the entire point of the Diamond attack after all: to wipe them out. But, she hadn't really thought about it. Ever. Certainly not when she'd been fighting them all those years and not when Steven brought her to meet all of them. She'd never really thought about another amethyst being a Crystal Gem.

"That's. Cool."

The other amethyst eyed her. "Hey, Steven, Cardinal figured out how to summon a weapon. I think she'd like it if you went and saw."

"Oh, um," he glanced at Amethyst. She shrugged. "Sure."

"Picket, you should go show him."

"But he knows his way around."

The other amethyst took the apatite's hand and kissed her knuckles. "Please."

Picket titled her head. "Alright. Come on Steven let's let them have their super-secret Quartz talk."

"I'm a Quartz," Steven pointed out trailing behind her.

"C'mon I'll show you around," the other amethyst said.

"This is Bunny," the other amethyst stated, dropping a rabbit into Amethyst's arms. Amethsyt rubbed behind its ears and it sniffed her a bit, settling down pretty easily. "And this is Bunny 3 and this is Bunny 5. That one is Bunny 2. I don't know where Bunny 6 is, but that one is Sir Fluffington Esquire."

Amethsyt hid her smile in Bunny's fur. "Steven name that one?" she asked. The other amethyst had immediately led her to what she claimed was her favorite part of the settlement: the bunny pin, where a bunny had just given birth to babies a couple of weeks ago.

"Indeed." she answered Amethyst's question with a perplexed shake of her head. "Steven has a strange naming convention." That reminded Amethyst of Garnet and Pearl. Amethyst had spent her entire life on Earth and had even interacted with humans before meeting the other gems, though sparingly. So, she understood the whole naming thing. However, despite having lived with humans for millennia, the others never quite got it. She vividly remembered the day where Pearl and Garnet had tried to talk a 3-year-old Steven out of naming a rock Harry.

' _But Steven,' Garnet had reasoned. "The rock has no hair."_

' _Harry.' Steven stubbornly replied. Amethyst had watched amused, eating one of the popsicles they'd brought to the beach._

' _That is not a good argument Steven,' Pearl had pointed out. Greg had sighed next to her but hadn't bothered to try to explain. It wouldn't work anyway._

' _Harry!' was Steven's rebuttal._

Steven had ended up winning the argument after a few hours by virtue of the pure stubbornness only a human toddler could manage. That was such a fun day.

"You used Picket's nickname though, Amethyst pointed out."

"Yeah," she agreed, offering a rabbit a bit of celery. "Feels right for some reason. Sometimes it feels weird for us to be called what we were before. Corruption changed us all. It's nice to have a name like that. It reminds us we aren't the same, but at the same time we are still people."

"I guess that makes sense." They sat in silence for a bit. "So, you two fuse?" Amethsyt asked.

Sleam's eyes moved from the bunny she was patting to Amethyst. "Yeah."

"That's cool."

Sleam smiled a bit. A third bunny hopped into her lap. "Yeah, yeah it is." There was more silence. "You knew Garnet, right?"

"Yeah, did you… wait, that's a stupid question isn't it? Sorry, it's just that I knew them for so long, I forgot they had lives before me."

Sleam shrugged with an easy grin on her face. "Yeah, I knew Garnet and Pearl back in the day. Rose too of course." She picked up another bunny (Fluffington Esquire?) and held it to her chest. "Picket and I were like Garnet back then," she said, scratching the top of the bunny's head. "A bit hard to do all the time at the moment, considering. It's hard enough to keep ourselves together let alone keep together, together."

Amethyst nodded in understanding. "I figured. Bet you two look cool."

Sleam puffed out an amused breath. "We do," she confirmed. "You know it's kinda nice to talk about it with someone who was never really _with_ Homeworld."

Amethyst shifted around uncomfortably to the ire of Bunny. "Well, I mean I was for the past decade or so."

"Yeah, but it's different," Sleam said. "Like most gems are a little disturbed by it or take a while to warm up to it or they're like Garnet and are over the top enthusiastic to combat the viewpoint that there's something wrong with it. Even most humans don't really understand it because they can't do it. The only other people I've met who act like it's not that big of a deal are Connie and Steven. And, well, actually Steven can be a bit…"

"Of a shipper," Amethyst supplied. Sleam gave her a confused look and Amethyst waved her off. "Just a human term. I know what you mean."

"Yeah, well, anyway. It's kinda nice that fusion can be seen as normal. Like being that way about it isn't written into our genetic code or something."

Amethyst looked at this other amethyst, covered head to toe in bunnies (literally one was chewing on her toe and another was in her hair) intermediately giving the one Steven named soft kisses on its nose and smiled. "Yeah, I get that."


End file.
